Noosa Triathlon looks like life saver for wife

FOR some people, tackling a triathlon is about challenging themselves, seeing how much control their mind has over their body and finding out where their limits are and if they can surpass them.

For Dominique Duhme, 40, it is about saving his wife's life.

When Karina Duhme lost her kidneys 18 years ago due to an infection, one of her sisters was kind enough to donate one of her own.

It lasted until three years ago when Karina needed to have some fluid expelled from her heart. She was told the procedure involved the use of a dye that would kill the transplanted kidney.

After the procedure, the kidney did indeed start to shut down and Duhme, of Deagon, asked his wife's specialist what he would need to do to be considered a donor.

"The response was 'you can start by losing 30kg', so I lost 30kg in the space of a year and started the first part of the transplant work late last year," Dominique said.

"The results came back better than ever so the next part was the matching process.

"We had to wait close to four weeks to get the results and my wife ... thought there was no way I would be a match. The look on her face when we got the results back, indicating I was a better match than her sister, was priceless. We were stunned that this long shot had paid off for us."

When he started to lose the weight to begin the matching process, Dominique entered a beginner triathlon to help commit to a regular training program. As is often the case, it was love at first "swim, bike, run".

"At the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure whether I should enter Noosa as we were thinking the transplant would happen just before Noosa," he said.

"However, my wife convinced me I should go for it because training for Noosa would provide me with a stretch target, and regardless of whether I competed or not, the end result would be that I was in the best shape I had ever been in," he said.

"Lucky for me it turns out I can compete and I am in the best shape I have been in a long time, so I am really happy about both those results."

At this stage, it seems Karina's operation will be in January or February next year.